Dan Wesson M-15 reciever stripped out!

I have recently got a M-15 D/W for cheap. Only problem is that the 6" Barrel set that came with it was very loose and the seller said that it flies off the gun when fired. Initially, I thought that the threads on the receiver looked OK but the threads on the barrel were obviously gone. I bought a 8" barrel set for pretty cheap (100.00) and commenced to install it with the proper head space. It felt A lot tighter and secure so off to the hills I went. Any guess what happened when I fired the first shot. Yep, the barrel and shroud were on the ground. Is there a fix for this as I am sure this is not the first time that this has happened. The new barrel set is OK and suffered little damage.

Thanks for your reply. I had initially thought that but I took another careful look. Could not see anything out of sorts with a good light and 10X mag. The threads just look to be rolled over. Your web page is pretty cool and I sure love Texas. Any other thoughts? Oz Backman

I'm at a total loss of how someone could have borked up a DW that bad. I guess when something is foolproof, there's always some fool to prove that wrong.
I think, if it's possible, the only "fix" would be to pin the barrel permanent to the frame, and that would still depend on enough thread material left to hold it. A competent gunsmith would be the only one to determine that.
With the cost of repair, let alone the safety issues, I think you're stuck with a parts gun.
Only good news is, especially if it's a Monson stamped gun, the parts could make up for the $ loss.

Thanks for the replies on this. I had contacted CZ and got a number for Dan Wesson who is evidently still in business. They said send it back and they could look at it but it would take 6 weeks before they would know anything with no promises of a fix. I had thought of getting it pinned or permanently welded but never got anywhere with it. A little history on this. The gun was my wife's Ex-husbands and she has the match for it. He had passed on recently and passed the gun down to his son, my step-son who then needed money and sold it to me. He remembered the barrel flying out during a shooting outing approx. 17 years ago, so it has been screwed up since then. Both guns are Monson stamped with serial #'s in the 304xxx range. Hers has the 2"inch barrel and the smaller grip (rounded) design. Mine had the 6" barrel with the full grips. I would like to just get the thing to stay in the receiver so I can count on it for an occasional outing as I have many boxes of shells that fit nothing else I have except the short barrel D/W which my wife doesn't want to shoot all that much to prevent any excessive wear on hers. Is TIG welding an option or would that cause undue stress to the barrel or receiver? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks Oz Backman

I doubt firing the gun caused that problem. It is more likely that someone tried to tighten the barrel and used so much pressure the threads stripped. I don't see any alternative to sending the gun to the factory. The current DW has little/no connection with the old company but if they are willing to work on the gun, I would take them up on the offer. Note that the gun is long out of warranty, so repairs might be costly; you will have to decide how much you are willing to spend on the gun in addition to what you have in it.

Lesson for the day: When something is for sale cheap, there is a reason.

A good machine shop should be able to re-cut the threads for you, although it may be just as cheap to have the factory fix it as they already have the specs. If the barrel feels loose when you screw it on, this would be the only way to fix it. However, if the barrel feels pretty tight when you screw it on, indicating the threads aren't too bad; I've been told that they can be soldered on in the threads, using the proper solder type and torch. I'm told this works and holds well as long as you're not firing rounds through it at a rate that will really heat the barrel up. I know for certain this has worked well on some old single shot shotguns. Although you would not be able to change barrels easily if you did this.

IIRC, the Model 15 is .357 Magnum, so I would not like to say that what might have worked with an old shotgun would work on that revolver. There is no room to cut threads; the originals are quite fine and shallow to begin with.

Everyone hates to say it, but some guns, for whatever reason, are simply beyond repair, but that is something the factory should know. I would let them make the decision.

Or deactivate the gun, hang it on the wall and buy a new gun. Please don't trade it off and let someone else find the problem the hard way.

Jim, you're quite right, as the pressures would be much greater on the 357. My thought was just that if the only problem he has was the barrel and shroud coming loose and falling off the gun, and it's not caused him any danger so far, it might be worth a try. You could tell after the first few rounds through it if it was going to hold properly, and I would certainly check it after each round until I knew for certain it would hold. Might also be able to have the barrel shroud welded to the frame, or weld a bead on the inside where the barrel threads come through the frame. May not look beautiful, but if done properly, could make a very solid "fixed barrel" shooter. Otherwise as you say, it may be beyond repair which could be a wall hanger or a good parts gun. And Ozwald, if you decide to part it out, I could be interested in a few of the parts as they may fit a model 14 I need some parts to fit. There seem to be quite a few folks looking for Dan Wesson parts, so it may be worth more for the individual parts than as a complete, but broken, gun.

The DW barrel is designed to screw into the frame and is supposed to be screwed in until it is hard against the feeler gauge that sets cylinder gap, about .006". The shroud is then placed and the barrel nut tightened with the supplied wrench. Couple of things can cause problems. First, shooting the revolver with the barrel nut improperly tightened can cause damage to the fine barrel/frame threads. Second, a slightly bent barrel, improper forcing cone or timing issue can also cause damage to the frame threads. And obviously cross-threading the barrel could damage it. One thing I've found about 'foolproof' systems is that they rarely consider the modern advancements in fools.

At any rate, the threads could be recut but may not have enough thread depth remaining. So the frame may be wrecked. Let CZ look at it, you've nothing to lose at this point.

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